Nasa’s advanced exploration systems division has awarded a contract to Aerojet Rocketdyne to develop and demonstrate a high-power electric propulsion system to minimise journey times and the cost of human missions to cislunar space and beyond Mars.
Under the contract, valued at more than $2.5m, Aerojet Rocketdyne will develop a 100KW hall thruster system, which involves a 250KW thruster that uses the company’s patented multi-channel nested hall thruster technology.
Aerojet will also develop critical elements of a 100KW modular power processing unit (PPU) and parts of the modular xenon feed system.
PPUs supply power to the hall thruster by converting electrical power generated by a spacecraft’s solar arrays.
The contract includes system integration testing, which will be completed with a 100 hour test of the hall thruster system at Nasa’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, US.
University of Michigan, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Silicon Turnkey Solutions are involved with Aerojet Rocketdyne in the project.The contract has a validity of 12 months, with two additional 12 month options valued a total sum of another $4m.
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By GlobalDataAerojet Rocketdyne advanced space and launch systems vice-president Julie Van Kleeck said: "We look forward to working with our teammates in the development of this high-power, high-efficiency propulsion technology.
"Our advanced nested hall thruster system will help transform the future of human spaceflight, allowing cost-effective delivery of large cargo to support human missions to Mars, and potentially transport astronauts to their destination faster, more efficiently and at a more cost-effective price."
Nasa, under its Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) initiative, has selected 12 teams to assist developing space and human exploration capabilities for deep space missions.
Aerojet Rocketdyne is one of the selected teams. As part of a public-private partnership with Nasa, the company has invested $12m in the technology to be developed.
Existing electric propulsion systems of a spacecraft require 5KW or less power to operate. Researchers are planning to build electric propulsion systems for near-term spacecraft using between 20KW and 50KW power such as Nasa’s asteroid re-direct mission (ARM).
In January, Nasa selected Aerojet Rocketdyne to mature the development of a MPS-130 cubesat modular propulsion system using a green propellant called AF-M315E.
